Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

JUDICIARY ACT 1903 - SECT 55H

  (1)   If:

  (a)   services of a legal professional nature are provided to a person or body (the client ) by an officer of, or a person employed in, a Government Department of a State, of the Australian Capital Territory or of the Northern Territory in his or her capacity as such an officer or employee in the course of acting for the client in proceedings in a federal court or in a tribunal established by a law of the Commonwealth; and

  (b)   the Department charges the client for any of the services or for disbursements incurred in connection with any of the services;

the amount charged may be recovered by the client as costs incurred by the client in the proceedings.

  (2)   If an amount charged as mentioned in paragraph   ( 1)(b) is not an amount of disbursement then, for the following purposes:

  (a)   an application to a federal court, or to a tribunal established by a law of the Commonwealth, for the award of costs;

  (b)   the taxation of those costs;

  (c)   the recovery of those costs by the client;

the amount charged is taken to have been paid by the client.